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 Bill Maher opposes vaccines?!
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular

USA
854 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  01:41:13  Show Profile Send Machi4velli a Private Message  Reply with Quote
What the hell is he thinking, haha

http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2009/10/maher_really_is_a_moron_on_med.php

"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking

"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus

Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  04:55:53   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Just goes to show that you don't need to be a critical thinker to be an atheist.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  06:49:18   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Just goes to show that you don't need to be a critical thinker to be an atheist.
Or that you can be a critical thinker in oddly limited ways, as Shermer is on just about every subject but Libertarianism.

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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Dude
SFN Die Hard

USA
6891 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  07:10:44   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Dude a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Bill Maher has blinders on when it comes to a few things. He thinks all processing of food is wrong, he thinks all medications are bad, he is a board member of PETA, he thinks there is a "big pharma" and "corporate farm/food" conspiracy to make people fat and sick, and he obviously doesn't understand the concept of how vaccination works.

I think part of his problem is that he is sheltered by his own celebrity. No one can get close to him and really inform him. He is on the money with most other things, and I suspect he realizes he is on shaky ground with the food/med/vaccine thing because he doesn't aggresively push those issues. Some of his guests recently have made him step back from the crazy also.

I get the impression from Maher that he could be swayed by a good evidence based argument also.


Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson

"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin

Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  07:30:47   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Orac, by the way, has had a lot to say about Maher recently:And let's not miss the older stuff:(The number problem seems to be Orac's.)

In short, Maher is anti-vaccine, anti-germ-theory, anti-pharma and an HIV/AIDS denialist.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard

USA
5310 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  07:40:07   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Gorgo a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Somebody tell me why the flak about PETA. What's wrong with PETA seems to be what's wrong with ACORN. Right-wing nonsense. Can someone lead me to some information on this?

I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter



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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  09:02:26   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Gorgo

Somebody tell me why the flak about PETA.
Because they're willing to lie about medical science to promote their agenda.

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard

USA
5310 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  09:10:19   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Gorgo a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Thanks, Dave. Good stuff.

I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter



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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  17:05:23   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Michael Shermer schools Bill Maher. On HuffPo, believe it or not.

H/T Orac (of course).

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  18:53:51   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Dave W.

Michael Shermer schools Bill Maher. On HuffPo, believe it or not.

H/T Orac (of course).
Wow! Now, if we could just get Bill Maher to likewise take on Shermer's Libertarianism...

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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Kil
Evil Skeptic

USA
13477 Posts

Posted - 10/16/2009 :  19:49:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Kil's Homepage  Send Kil an AOL message  Send Kil a Yahoo! Message Send Kil a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by HalfMooner

Originally posted by Dave W.

Michael Shermer schools Bill Maher. On HuffPo, believe it or not.

H/T Orac (of course).
Wow! Now, if we could just get Bill Maher to likewise take on Shermer's Libertarianism...
Only problem there is that Maher is pretty much a libertarian himself.

Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.

Why not question something for a change?

Genetic Literacy Project
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 10/17/2009 :  06:21:33   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by Kil

Originally posted by HalfMooner

Originally posted by Dave W.

Michael Shermer schools Bill Maher. On HuffPo, believe it or not.

H/T Orac (of course).
Wow! Now, if we could just get Bill Maher to likewise take on Shermer's Libertarianism...
Only problem there is that Maher is pretty much a libertarian himself.
D'oh!

Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
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Machi4velli
SFN Regular

USA
854 Posts

Posted - 10/17/2009 :  11:46:20   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send Machi4velli a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Dawkins award indeed...

"Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people."
-Giordano Bruno

"The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, but the illusion of knowledge."
-Stephen Hawking

"Seeking what is true is not seeking what is desirable"
-Albert Camus
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podcat
Skeptic Friend

435 Posts

Posted - 10/17/2009 :  22:32:09   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send podcat a Private Message  Reply with Quote
You know, I like Bill Maher, and I think he's got a point on a lot of subjects, but his increasingly irrational stance against vaccines just drives me up the wall. I wonder if he thinks Jonas Salk's vaccine was harmful to polio patients.

“In a modern...society, everybody has the absolute right to believe whatever they damn well please, but they don't have the same right to be taken seriously”.

-Barry Williams, co-founder, Australian Skeptics
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Dave W.
Info Junkie

USA
26022 Posts

Posted - 10/17/2009 :  23:29:58   [Permalink]  Show Profile  Visit Dave W.'s Homepage Send Dave W. a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Holy cow. From Orac (yes, again), I've learned that Maher took the opportunity presented by his season finale to defend himself against the accusations that he's anti-science-based-medicine, and was taken to school this time by Chris Matthews, who had the good sense to compare Maher to Tom Cruise.

Unbelievably, Maher used the "it's not settled science" gambit, insisting that there's less evidence for the efficacy and safety of vaccines than there is for anthropogenic global warming, and further insisting that he's not as "crazy" as the people who argue against AGW or evolution. Yes, Bill, you are. When it comes to vaccines and "Western" medicine, you're every bit as nutty as our own Bill scott.

I can't even watch the clip that Orac's posted. I really liked the guy. But if he's parading his ignorance around, claiming that vaccination is giving someone "a little bit of the disease," I'm not going to give him even the itsy-bitsy amount of "support" that comes with an increased-by-one YouTube view count.

And what's he got against Jell-O?

- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too.
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HalfMooner
Dingaling

Philippines
15831 Posts

Posted - 10/17/2009 :  23:31:42   [Permalink]  Show Profile Send HalfMooner a Private Message  Reply with Quote
Originally posted by podcat

You know, I like Bill Maher, and I think he's got a point on a lot of subjects, but his increasingly irrational stance against vaccines just drives me up the wall. I wonder if he thinks Jonas Salk's vaccine was harmful to polio patients.
Polio and the H-bomb were the twin terrors of elementary school children in the early nineteen-fifties. In classrooms, duck-and-cover drills competed for horror with films showing rows of iron lungs with kids trapped inside. Many of you have no idea how great a relief the Salk vaccine was to us all.

My teeth grate when I think of all the lurking killers to which the criminally stupid anti-vaxers are now exposing themselves, and us.



Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive.
Edited by - HalfMooner on 10/17/2009 23:33:21
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